I am personally very fond of the work Homes For The Brave does with our brave veterans who have served in the military. These men and women often need help getting back on their feet once they are out of the service. Around the holidays I either volunteer to serve meals there or organize fundraisers to help the residents. It is a rewarding experience to help those who have helped millions of Americans.

At church a coat drive is run by a fellow student , and I participate in it yearly. I donate blankets and old coats that don't fit me any longer, and also help in the "saleperson". i talk to the chruch about it and tell people how to doantate. Everything donated, is given to a place in Bridgeport. I also have done stockings for the same shelter. I ask the people at my chruch to donate candy and little gifts, and put it in stockings. Last year I made 35 stockings from 2 weeks worth of donations. This year i will being starting it up sooner and plan on making 40 stockings. 

Growing up in Australia, I volunteered as a lifesaver at our local beach every summer. (We're lifesavers not just guards Down Under!)

Christmas was a busy day so some years I would have to patrol the beaches rather than laze around eating all day with my family. One year my whole family came down to the beach to spend it with me!

It's obviously a very different kind of Christmas to what we experience in the Northern Hemisphere. And as much as I was sorry to be away from my family some years, it was lovely to watch families enjoying themselves at the beach and helping them however I could - usually I didn't have to do much more than hand out sunscreen but one year we had to rescue a man that had been stung by a stingray out at sea.

When both my grown children and now a daughter-in-law, spend Christmas with me in Connecticut, we go to the Norwalk Homeless Shelter to help prepare the Christmas lunch.  After a quick brekafast, we head over there  around 9am. It is quite busy in the small kitchen space, but we are usually joined by a few others doing the same thing.  We help put the turkeys and the stuffing in the ovens, mash the potatoes with butter and milk, we open big cans of string beans and put them in the big pans on top of the stove, we find the rolls to warm them, we prepare the lettuce and whatever veggies we have for salad.  A group sets the tables and decorates with whatever is available.  When it is all ready, we help each other make the plates, that are then served to all the waiting patrons.  That to me is the most fun part.  The guests are so grateful to have a warm meal, and we know that we have helped make the day a little better and more special for many who would not normally have had much.